Monday, March 17, 2014

Savings Accounts, Yes I Now Have More Than One

Savings Accounts|Capital One 360I now have more than one savings account. That's right, despite the fact that I have not yet reached the goal for my emergency fund ($1,000) I went ahead and set up an additional account.

The new account is with Capital One 360. After reading some reviews from some PF bloggers and others about Capital One 360's savings accounts, I decided to try it.

Signing up was very easy. You can sign-up in about 5 minutes using their website and make your first deposit. I love that there are no fees for transferring money in or out and there's no minimum balance. Plus, the earned interest rate is higher than at my local bank.

With Capital One 360 you can have multiple savings accounts and you can label them all different things. For instance I could have a savings fund for a new computer and a separate one for a trip I'm planning on taking. You can also have them hooked up to multiple outside checking accounts. I have two checking accounts at my local bank, one for my personal money and one for my home business. This way I can transfer money from either of those two checking accounts into my new Capital One 360 savings account.

Capital One 360 also has a goal setting feature. For each savings account with them you can set a goal with a time or amount deadline and they will calculate how much you should be saving monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly. They also calculate what percent of the goal you have reached.

So why did I set up a new account and what is it for? Well, I think it will be handy to have a savings account separate from my emergency fund to save up for trips and fun weekends away. It will be easier to squander the money away since it is at a different bank. I will not be tempted to spend the money early by seeing the account balance every day when I log in to check my local accounts. My new account is for a trip I am planning to attend a performance of "Wicked" when it comes to my area next summer. (2015) Plus, I plan on setting up another one, when I have some additional extra income, to fund my weekend trips to see my BFF.

Right now when you decide to sign up for a Capital One 360 savings account*, you get a $25 bonus on your first account! Don't forget there's no minimum balance, you can start your account with any amount. You can also get a $50 bonus for opening a checking account with them!

Note: After I set up my Capital One 360 savings account, my $25 bonus was not automatically added. If you have this problem, make sure you call customer service. The gentleman I spoke to went out of his way to make sure I got my bonus (since I had forgotten to enter the "redemption code" required to get the bonus when I signed up). He was very helpful and manually posted the bonus to my account right then and there. That's great customer service!

*The above link is my referral link for signing up with Capital One 360. If you choose to use the link and sign up, I will receive a $20 bonus to my savings account. Because I believe it is important to save, you may also sign up without giving me a referral bonus, if you prefer, by visiting the Capital One 360 homepage.This is not a sponsored post. The things stated above are my real opinions of Capital One 360. Capital One 360 did not give me any form of payment for writing this. But if they'd like to give me a bonus to my savings account, I'd really appreciate it ;)

2 Comments:

Having an extra savings fund for 'fun stuff' sounds like a great plan to me. I have four different savings accounts! One for birthdays / gifts, another for emergencies, a third for my rental property emergency fund and lastly, one for retirement. Confusing! But all good. :)

I agree that having more than one is fine. My only hesitation was starting a second one before my EF is fully funded to the $1,000 mark... But I'm still making progress on that front as well, AND paying down my debts so I decided it was ok. :)